Nirvana - Omnibus (1969)

Nirvana was created as the performing arm of the London-based songwriting partnership of Irish musician Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek composer Alex Spyropoulos. On their recordings Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos supplied all the vocals, with instrumental work being primarily undertaken by top session musicians, although Campbell-Lyons did provide a little guitar and Spyropoulos contributed some keyboards. The songs were a mixture of rock, pop, folk, jazz, Latin rhythms and classical music, primarily augmented by baroque chamber-style arrangements, and creating a sound that was quite unique to them. Their first album, 'The Story Of Simon Simopath', was a concept album produced by Chris Blackwell, and was released at the height of the psychedelic era in 1967. It was one of the first narrative concept albums ever released, and actually predates The Pretty Things' 'S.F. Sorrow' and The Who's 'Tommy'. When the duo relaised that they would be unable to perform their songs live, they decided to create a live performance group, The Nirvana Ensemble, and they recruited four musicians to enable them to undertake concerts and TV appearances. Although these four musicians were included in the photograph on the cover of their first album, in order to assist in projecting an image of a group rather than a duo, within a few months Nirvana had reverted to its original two-person lineup. The band appeared on French television with Salvador Dalí, who splashed black paint on them during a performance of their second single 'Rainbow Chaser', and  Campbell-Lyons kept the jacket, but regrets that Dalí did not sign any of their paint-splashed clothes. 
In 1968, the duo recorded their second album, 'All Of Us', which featured a similar broad range of musical styles as their debut release. Their third album, 'Black Flower', was rejected by Blackwell, and was eventually released in the UK in 1970 under the title 'To Markos III' (supposedly named for a "rich uncle" of Spyropoulos who helped finance the album). In 1971 the duo amicably separated, with Campbell-Lyons the primary contributor to the next two Nirvana albums, 1971's 'Local Anaesthetic', anf the following year's 'Songs Of Love And Praise'. 'Local Anaesthetic' is a superb progressive rock album, consisting of just two long pieces, and quite unlike their early psyche-pop songs, so do check it out. During their career they did release a number of songs on the b-sides of their singles which didn't appear on the then current album, as well as issuing a one-off single in 1969. There are also a few out-takes around of previously unreleased songs, as well as works in progress of tracks which would later appear in a refined form on their records (notably 'Omnibus' and 'C-Side In Ocho Rios'). I've also included an interesting take of 'All Of Us', which features vocals by the actresses from the film which it soundtracked, 'The Touchables', and we close with a version of that one-off single 'Oscar (Oh! What A Performance'), recorded with prog-rock deities Spooky Tooth.

Track listing

01 I Believe In Magic (b-side of 'Tiny Goddess' 1967)
02 Feelin' Shattered (b-side of 'Pentecost Hotel' 1967)
03 Flashbulb (b-side of 'Rainbow Chaser' 1968)
04 I Never Had A Love Like This Before (Instrumental) (previously unreleased)
05 Requiem To John Coltrane (b-side of 'Wings Of Love' 1969)
06 Life Ain't Easy (previously unreleased)
07 Omnibus (original version of 'All Of Us')
08 C Side In Ocho Rios (b-side of 'Girl In The Park' 1968)
09 Goodbye Baby Bunting (previously unreleased)
10 Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (single 1969)   
11 Darling Darlene (b-side of 'Oscar (Oh! What A Performance)')
12 City Of The South (previously unreleased)
13 The Touchables (All Of Us) (featuring vocals by the actresses from 'The Touchables' film)
14 Oscar (Oh! What A Performance) (long version with Spooky Tooth)